Thank You, Deeply

Dear Deeply Readers,

We want to let you know that Malnutrition Deeply will be pausing publication on September 1. We have loved serving our community with great journalism and informed conversation, but for the time being financial support for the platform has come to a close. We will continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next.

If you’d like to support continued reporting on Malnutrition Deeply or collaborate on producing research or events that help fund our journalism you can reach us at partners@newsdeeply.com.

A new United Nations resolution banning the use of starvation as a weapon of war could be critical in reversing rising global malnutrition rates, according to Arif Husain, chief economist and director of the Food Security Analysis and Trends Service at the World Food Programme.

The resolution, which the Security Council adopted unanimously in May, allows the U.N. secretary general to notify the council of situations where ongoing violence is affecting food security. It also calls for armed actors to allow humanitarian groups unhindered access to civilians.

In a world where 10 of the 13 most severe food crises are being fueled by conflict, Husain said increased recognition of this link could lead to more and better interventions. He spoke to Malnutrition Deeply about how this might happen.

Malnutrition Deeply: What led to the passage of the resolution?

Arif Husain (Courtesy of Arif Husain)

Arif Husain: It’s really the need of the hour, need of the day. If you look at what is happening in the world today in terms of food security, you will see that the number of hungry people is rising. We look at both chronic food insecurity as well as acute food insecurity. In terms of the chronic food insecurity, the numbers had been declining despite population increases for a couple of decades. But in the past three years or so this number has started to rise. Two years ago, the chronically food insecure were 777 million. Today they’re 815 million and rising.

In this 815 million number, 60 percent of these people live in areas affected by conflict. And together with this number goes the number of children who are basically suffering from stunted growth, and that number is 155 million, of which close to 80 percent live in conflict-affected countries. Conflict is a big deal.

When we start to look at acute food insecurity coming out of both natural and man-made shocks, what we see is that this number two years ago was 80 million people. Today its 124 million – a 55 percent increase in two years.

If we take just this 124 million number and break it down, what we find is that for about 74 million of these individuals, the primary reason to be affected is conflict. So, if you consider both the nutrition as well as the food insecurity situation, you could easily see that there is enough evidence that conflict is a very, very big part of it. This is being recognized in the world right now. That’s one big reason behind the resolution.

Malnutrition Deeply: And what is the second?

Husain: Essentially, I would say the migration issue. If you look at the numbers on migration, you’re going to see that right now almost 66 million people are forcibly displaced, of whom about 23 million are refugees, and about 40 million-plus are internally displaced. And you know what the primary cause is of these displacements? Conflict.

On one side, you’re seeing this global increase in the number of food insecure people, a global increase in the number of malnourished people. On the other side, you’re seeing an increase in people who are being displaced, with the driving forces being conflict and climate change. But by far [the most significant is] conflict. What that has done is to essentially make it almost impossible not to acknowledge that there is a relationship between conflict, food insecurity and displacement.

In fact, we did a study on the linkages between food security, conflict and migration. And we came up with two main empirical findings after looking at data for the past 30 years on migration from about 160-plus countries and territories. First, that for every 1 percent increase in hunger you have a 2 percent increase in people who will cross borders and leave their countries.

And second, for each additional year of conflict, about 0.4 or half a percent more people will leave their country.

Malnutrition Deeply: What do you see as the significance of the resolution?

Husain: For me, first and foremost, it hasn’t happened in 50 years. So I think the recognition by the major powers that yes, this is an issue, and yes, it needs to be resolved and yes, it is a human right, are all critically important. We are really excited that this has happened.

For me, living in a globalized world, living in the 21st century, in 2017, we were talking about people dying of famine in four countries. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that. And even today the risk of famine is still there. Why? Because the structural reasons, which were relevant last year, are still there, meaning those wars are still going on, the conflicts are still going on.

So what we are pushing for is that we need two things to happen. One, pressure to resolve some of these conflicts. Two, while that is being done, to have enough resources as well as humanitarian access to assist people who cannot run out of the places where they’re stuck.

This resolution is in a way acknowledging that yes, these are some of the things that are happening today in the 21st century. It should not happen. And while we are trying to get to peace and to resolve these issues, we need to continue to help people who are in a very, very bad shape.

The other thing we think this brings out is that many people will fight because they have nothing to lose. So why is it not possible for us to give people hope and reason to live? I don’t mean just assistance, but proper livelihoods, development, building their resilience, so they have something to protect. But then it’s a different fight, right?

Right now people get exploited [because of] their destitution. We want to be at a stage where that stops and we can show peace dividends, essentially to people in places such as northeast Nigeria, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere. So that’s our objective and we think that this resolution is the first big step in that direction. You have to acknowledge the problem before you solve the problem.

About the Author

Andrew Green is the managing editor of Malnutrition Deeply. He has reported on health and human rights from three different continents and for a variety of outlets. He was formerly Voice of America’s bureau chief in South Sudan and the web editor at the Center for Public Integrity.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

In republishing any of our articles:

Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS:

Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Malnutrition Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Malnutrition’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:

This should read : “This article originally appeared on Malnutrition Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about malnutrition and the ideas to end it, you can sign up to the Malnutrition email list.”

Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.

Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.

We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.

Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.

After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.

News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.

You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.

You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.

We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact community@newsdeeply.com